NFL schedule gives Chiefs, Jets major exposure

The Kansas City Chiefs will open the season with a difficult one-two punch as they seek their third Super Bowl championship in a row.

The NFL released its full regular-season schedule on Wednesday night, when the Chiefs got a full look at the challenges in store for them in 2024. They will face Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL’s “Kickoff Game” on Sept. 5, and one week later they will play a Cincinnati Bengals team that has beaten them in six of the past eight regular-season meetings.

Plenty of other tests await the Chiefs, such as a road contest on Oct. 20 against the San Francisco 49ers in a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl.

In other highlights from the schedule release, Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets learned that they will be in prime time six times this season. The Jets’ national slate includes a Week 1 matchup against the 49ers on “Monday Night Football,” another Monday night matchup in Week 6 against the Buffalo Bills, and a Week 9 game against the Houston Texans on Amazon’s Thursday night schedule.

Rodgers and the Jets also will travel to London, where they will kick off against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 5 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The league’s international schedule includes four other matchups. The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles will face off on Sept. 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in what will be the NFL’s first regular-season game to be played in South America.

Two more London games feature the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. the Chicago Bears on Oct. 13 and the New England Patriots vs. the Jaguars on Oct. 20, and the final international game showcases the New York Giants vs. the Carolina Panthers on Nov. 10 in Munich, Germany.

The NFL again will play three games on Thanksgiving. The action starts with No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams and the Bears visiting the Detroit Lions, and it continues with a midafternoon matchup between the Giants and Dallas Cowboys. The nightcap features the Miami Dolphins at Green Bay.

One day later, on “Black Friday,” the Las Vegas Raiders will visit Kansas City. This marks the second year that the NFL has broadcast a game on the day after Thanksgiving.

On Dec. 8, Kirk Cousins will visit a familiar environment when his Atlanta Falcons travel to play the Vikings. Cousins left Minnesota during free agency in the offseason to sign with the Falcons, who guaranteed him $100 million and surprised him weeks later by selecting fellow quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with their first-round draft pick.

The schedule also includes a pair of games on Christmas Day, a Wednesday, that will air on Netflix — a first-time broadcast partnership for the NFL. The streaming service will feature the Chiefs vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Ravens vs. the Texans.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be the first professional sports league to partner with Netflix to bring live games to fans around the world,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution.

Headlines